Channel allocation among multiple radio frequency networks

ABSTRACT

Methods, systems, and storage media for dynamic allocation of communication channels among multiple wireless networks are disclosed. The example embodiments may provide interference mitigation and control among a plurality of wireless protocols operating in an environment. Other embodiments may be disclosed and/or claimed.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

This application is a continuation application of U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 15/253,600, entitled “CHANNEL ALLOCATION AMONGMULTIPLE RADIO FREQUENCY NETWORKS,” filed Aug. 31, 2016, the contents ofwhich is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety.

FIELD

The present disclosure relates to the fields of wireless communications,and in particular, to apparatuses, methods and storage media for dynamicallocation of communication channels for environments having multipleradio frequency networks operating therein.

BACKGROUND

The Internet of Things (“IoT”) is a network of objects or “things”, eachof which is embedded with hardware or software that enable connectivityto the Internet. An object, device, sensor, or “thing” (also referred toas an “IoT device”) that is connected to a network typically providesinformation to a manufacturer, operator, or other connected devices orclients in order to track information from or about the object or toobtain or provide services. IoT devices are deployed in homes, offices,manufacturing facilities, and the natural environment. IoT devices mayalso be referred to as machine-type communications (MTC) devices,machine-to-machine (M2M) devices, and the like.

Device manufacturers and/or service providers are developing anddeploying IoT devices at an increasing rate in order to fulfill anincreasing demand to track data and/or obtain services using one or moreIoT devices. Since different manufacturers and/or service providersdevelop and deploy various IoT devices, the IoT devices deployed in agiven environment may communicate according to different wirelesscommunications protocols. Many of these protocols operate in the same2.4 gigahertz (GHz) band, an industrial-scientific-medical (ISM) band,and/or one or more unlicensed bands that operate independently of oneanother. Although each wireless communications protocol may providemechanisms for avoiding or mitigating interference, since these wirelesscommunications protocols may operate independently of each other, radiofrequency (RF) transmissions from the various IoT devices in theenvironment may cause interference and reduce the overall throughput ofa particular network. This interferences and reduction of throughput mayresult in a lower Quality of Service (QoS) and/or Quality of Experience(QoE) for the IoT devices/services in the environment.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Embodiments will be readily understood by the following detaileddescription in conjunction with the accompanying drawings. To facilitatethis description, like reference numerals designate like structuralelements. Embodiments are illustrated by way of example, and not by wayof limitation, in the figures of the accompanying drawings.

FIGS. 1A-1C illustrate various arrangements in which various exampleembodiments described in the present disclosure may be implemented;

FIG. 2 illustrates the components of a computer device in accordancewith various example embodiments;

FIG. 3 illustrates example embodiments of logical components andinteraction points between elements shown and described with regard toFIGS. 1-2;

FIG. 4 illustrates an example dynamic channel allocation classificationscheme, according to various embodiments;

FIG. 5 illustrates an example of dynamic channel allocation databaseentries based on the classification scheme of FIG. 4, according tovarious embodiments;

FIG. 6 illustrates another example of dynamic channel allocationdatabase entries based on the classification scheme of FIG. 4, accordingto various embodiments; and

FIG. 7 illustrates an example process for dynamic channel allocation inaccordance with various embodiments.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

In the following detailed description, reference is made to theaccompanying drawings which form a part hereof wherein like numeralsdesignate like parts throughout, and in which is shown by way ofillustrated embodiments that may be practiced. It is to be understoodthat other embodiments may be utilized and structural or logical changesmay be made without departing from the scope of the present disclosure.Therefore, the following detailed description is not to be taken in alimiting sense, and the scope of embodiments is defined by the appendedclaims and their equivalents.

Various operations may be described as multiple discrete actions oroperations in turn, in a manner that is most helpful in understandingthe claimed subject matter. However, the order of description should notbe construed to imply that the various operations are necessarilyorder-dependent. In particular, these operations might not be performedin the order of presentation. Operations described may be performed in adifferent order than the described embodiments. Various additionaloperations might be performed, or described operations might be omittedin additional embodiments.

The description may use the phrases “in an embodiment”, “in animplementation”, or in “embodiments” or “implementations”, which mayeach refer to one or more of the same or different embodiments.Furthermore, the terms “comprising,” “including,” “having,” and thelike, as used with respect to embodiments of the present disclosure, aresynonymous. The terms “coupled,” “communicatively coupled,” along withderivatives thereof are used herein. The term “coupled” may mean two ormore elements are in direct physical or electrical contact with oneanother, may mean that two or more elements indirectly contact eachother but still cooperate or interact with each other, and/or may meanthat one or more other elements are coupled or connected between theelements that are said to be coupled with each other. The term “directlycoupled” may mean that two or more elements are in direct contact withone another. The term “communicatively coupled” may mean that two ormore elements may be in contact with one another by a means ofcommunication including through a wire or other interconnect connection,through a wireless communication channel or ink, and/or the like.

Also, it is noted that example embodiments may be described as a processdepicted with a flowchart, a flow diagram, a data flow diagram, astructure diagram, or a block diagram. Although a flowchart may describethe operations as a sequential process, many of the operations may beperformed in parallel, concurrently, or simultaneously. In addition, theorder of the operations may be re-arranged. A process may be terminatedwhen its operations are completed, but may also have additional stepsnot included in a figure. A process may correspond to a method, afunction, a procedure, a subroutine, a subprogram, and the like. When aprocess corresponds to a function, its termination may correspond to areturn of the function to the calling function a main function.

As disclosed herein, the term “memory” may represent one or morehardware devices for storing data, including random access memory (RAM),magnetic RAM, core memory, read only memory (ROM), magnetic disk storagemediums, optical storage mediums, flash memory devices or other machinereadable mediums for storing data. The term “computer-readable medium”may include, but is not limited to, memory, portable or fixed storagedevices, optical storage devices, and various other mediums capable ofstoring, containing or carrying instructions or data.

As used herein, the term “circuitry” refers to, is part of, or includeshardware components such as an Application Specific Integrated Circuit(ASIC), an electronic circuit, a logic circuit, a processor (shared,dedicated, or group) and/or memory (shared, dedicated, or group) thatare configured to provide the described functionality. In someembodiments, the circuitry may execute computer-executable instructionsto provide at least some of the described functionality. Thecomputer-executable instructions may represent program code or codesegments, software or software logic, firmware, middleware or microcode,procedures, functions, subprograms, routines, subroutines, one or moresoftware packages, classes, or any combination of instructions, datastructures, program statements, and/or functional processes that performparticular tasks or implement particular data types. Thecomputer-executable instructions discussed herein may be implementedusing existing hardware in computer devices and communications networks.

As used herein, the term “network element”, may be considered synonymousto or referred to as a networked computer, networking hardware, networkequipment, router, switch, hub, bridge, gateway, or other like device.The term “network element” may describe a physical computing device of anetwork with wired or wireless communication links. Furthermore, theterm “network element” may describe equipment that provides radiobaseband functions for data or voice connectivity between a network andone or more users. The term “channel” as used herein may refer to anytransmission medium, either tangible or intangible, which is used tocommunicate data or a data stream. Additionally, the term “channel” maybe synonymous with and/or equivalent to “communications channel,” “datacommunications channel,” “transmission channel,” “data transmissionchannel,” “access channel,” “data access channel,” “link,” “data link,”“radio link,” “carrier,” “radiofrequency carrier,” and/or any other liketerm denoting a pathway or medium through which data is communicated. Asused herein, the term “radio technology” refers to a technology forwireless transmission and/or reception of electromagnetic radiation forinformation transfer. The term “radio access technology” or “RAT” refersto the technology used for the underlying physical connection to a radiobased communication network (e.g., cellular, mobile broadband, wirelesslocal area network (WLAN), personal area network (PAN), etc.).

Example embodiments provide systems and methods for interferencemitigation and control among a plurality of wireless protocols operatingin an environment. An environment may include various computer devicesthat are capable of communicating with one another using one or moreradio frequency (RF) transmissions in accordance with one or morewireless communications protocols. In embodiments, some of thesecomputer devices may be “Internet of Things” (IoT) devices. The term“IoT device” may refer to any computer device, sensor, “smart object”,“smart device”, Machine Type Communications (MTC) devices,machine-to-machine (M2M) device, and/or any other like devices that areembedded with hardware and software components that enable the devicesto communicate over a communications network (e.g., the Internet).Because IoT devices are enabled to communicate over a network, the IoTdevices may exchange event-based data with service providers in order toenhance or complement the services provided by the service providers.These IoT devices are typically able to transmit data autonomously orwith little to no user intervention. In embodiments, the IoT devices maycommunicate with network elements, client devices, or other IoT devicesvia a gateway (GW) device.

In embodiments, a GW may dynamically select a channel of operation forwireless communication. To do so, the GW may scan a frequency spectrumand determine one or more wireless protocols operating in the frequencyspectrum and one or more available channels in the frequency spectrum.The GW may store the one or more wireless protocols in a database (DB),including their RF power levels, data rates, modulation schemas, and thelike. The GW may determine an interference signature for each channeland classify each available channel according to their interferencesignature. The interference signature may indicate the amount ofinterference being caused by an “aggressor network,” which is a networkthat interferes with other networks. The networks that are interferedwith by an aggressor network may be referred to as “victim networks.” Inembodiments, if a channel is found to be a potential usable channel, theGW may perform another scan on that particular channel to make sure thatno other networks of the same wireless protocol are operating in thatchannel. For example, in a ZigBee network, the GW may scan a selectedZigBee channel to make sure that no other ZigBee networks are operatingin that ZigBee channel. Additionally, in various embodiments the GW mayperiodically scan the frequency spectrum for any changes in theinterference signatures, and the severity of any newly detectedinterference may be analyzed by performing the algorithm again.

Referring now to FIGS. 1A-1C. IoT devices 102, gateways (GWs) 124, andclient device 105 in environment 108 (which may be any physical space)may be capable of communicating using RF signals. The environment 108may be a home (or room within a home), apartment building (or apartmentwithin an apartment building), an office building (or an individualoffice within an office building), a factory, or other like space. Inembodiments, the devices within the environment 108 may be a meshnetwork of IoT devices 102 and other computer devices, such as fog 120shown and described with regard to FIG. 1B. In various embodiments,environment 108 may comprise one or more devices that provide multipleradio frequency networks, such as a wireless access point (AP) orwireless router that may provide a WLAN (not shown by FIGS. 1A-1C) inaccordance with an Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers(IEEE) 802.11 protocol; one or more base stations and/or other networkelements (not shown by FIG. 1) that may provide a cellularcommunications network such as next generation NodeBs (gNBs) for 3rdGeneration Partnership Project (3GPP) Fifth Generation (5G)/New Radio(NR) networks, evolved nodeBs (eNBs) for 3GPP Long Term Evolution (LTE)networks, nodeBs for Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS)networks, base station system/subsystem (BSS) for Global System forMobile Communications (GSM) and Enhanced Data GSM Environment (EDGE)networks, access points for IEEE 802.16 networks (referred to asWirelessMAN or Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMAX)),and the like; IoT devices 102, GWs 124, and/or client device 105 thatmay provide networks based on one or more IEEE 802.15.4 based protocols(e.g., a 6LoWPAN, ZigBee, Thread, etc.); Bluetooth or Bluetooth LowEnergy (BLE) protocols; ANT protocol; 3GPP device-to-device (D2D).sidelink, or Proximity Services (ProSe) protocols; Z-Wave protocol;SigFox protocol; Platanus protocol; or Universal Plug and Play (UPnP)protocol. GWs 124, DAs 128, client device 105, and/or some IoT devices102 may be equipped to the teachings of the present disclosure toefficiently/effectively operate in the multiple radio frequency networksenvironment.

A computer device (such as IoT devices 102, GWs 124, DAs 128, and/orclient device 105) may be configured to determine, based on a scan of adesired frequency spectrum, one or more available channels, wherein atleast one of the available channel is associated with a differentwireless communication protocol than a wireless communication protocolof another available channel; determine, for each of the one or moreavailable channels, a corresponding interference signature; assign, toeach of the one or more available channels, a rank or classificationbased on the corresponding interference signature; select an availablechannel from among the one or more available channels based on assignedranks; and transmit one or more data packets over the selected availablechannel in accordance with a wireless communication protocol associatedwith the selected available channel. The computer device may also beconfigured to instruct another device (e.g., an IoT device 102) tocommunicate over the selected available channel in accordance withwireless communication protocol of the selected channel. These and otheraspects of the teachings of the present disclosure will be describedmore fully below.

FIG. 1A illustrates an arrangement 10 in which a cloud computing network100, or cloud 100, in communication with a number of IoT devices 102, atleast some of which are communicating with one or more servers 104.Cloud 100 may be any network that allows computers to exchange data,such as the Internet, a wide area network (WAN), a local area network(LAN), wireless local area network (WLAN), a cellular network, apersonal network such as a proprietary network for a company, or anyother such network or combination thereof. Cloud 100 may include one ormore network elements (not shown) capable of physically or logicallyconnecting computers. Components used for such a system can depend atleast in part upon the type of network and/or environment selected.Protocols and components for communicating via such a network are wellknown and will not be discussed herein in detail. Communication over thenetwork may be enabled by wired or wireless connections, andcombinations thereof.

IoT devices 102 may be any object, device, sensor, or “thing” that isembedded with hardware and/or software components that enable theobject, device, sensor, or “thing” to communicate with another device(e.g., client device 105, one or more servers 104, another IoT device102, etc.) over a network (e.g., cloud 100) with little or no userintervention. In this regard, IoT devices 102 may include acommunications circuitry, such as a transmitter/receiver (oralternatively, a transceiver), one or more memory devices, and one ormore processors. To communicate with other devices, each of the IoTdevices 102 may transmit and receive RF signals according to one or morewireless communications protocols.

The wireless communications protocols may be any suitable set ofstandardized rules or instructions implemented by radio equipment (e.g.,client device 105, GW 126, the IoT devices 102, etc.) to communicatewith other devices, including instructions for packetizing/depacketizingdata, modulating/demodulating signals, implementation of protocolsstacks, and/or the like. Examples of such wireless communicationsprotocols may include, cellular communications protocols (e.g., 5G/NR,LTE, UMTS, GSM, EDGE, Wi-MAX (IEEE 802.16), etc.), LAN or WLAN protocols(e.g., Wi-Fi-based protocols or IEEE protocols, such as IEEE 802.11protocols, etc.), and person-to-person (P2P) or personal area network(PAN) protocols (e.g., IEEE 802.15.4 based protocols including ZigBee,IPv6 over Low power Wireless Personal Area Networks (6LoWPAN),WirelessHART, MiWi, Thread, and the like; WiFi-direct; Bluetooth/BLEprotocols; ANT protocols; Z-Wave; LTE D2D or ProSe; UPnP; and the like).

The IoT devices 102 may include any number of different types ofdevices, grouped in various combinations. For example, an IoT group 106may include IoT devices 102 mounted or otherwise configured to monitorspecific devices/systems deployed in an environment. Other groups of IoTdevices 102, such as IoT group 110, IoT group 112, IoT group 114, andIoT group 116, may be mounted to or configured to monitor correspondingdevices/systems deployed in the environment. The IoT groups 106, 110,112, 114, and 116 may be in communication with the cloud 100 through asub-network 108, such as a LAN, WLAN, and/or any other like network. TheIoT devices 102 may use another IoT device 102 as a backend processingsystem 118 to various data and communicate with the cloud 100. Each ofthese IoT devices 102 may be in communication with other IoT devices102, with client 105 (shown by FIG. 1C), with one or more servers 104,or any combination thereof.

FIG. 1B illustrates an arrangement 20 that may include a cloud computingnetwork, or cloud 100, in communication with a mesh network of IoTdevices 102, that may be termed a fog 120, operating at the edge of thecloud 100. To simplify the diagram, not every IoT device 102 is labeled.

The fog 120 may be considered to be a massively interconnected networkwherein a number of IoT devices 102 are in communications with eachother, for example, by radio links 122. This may be performed using theopen interconnect consortium (OIC) standard specification 1.0 releasedby the Open Connectivity Foundation™ (OCF) on Dec. 23, 2015. Thisstandard allows devices to discover each other and establishcommunications for interconnects. Other interconnection protocols mayalso be used, including, for example, the optimized link state routing(OLSR) Protocol, or the better approach to mobile ad-hoc networking(B.A.T.M.A.N.), among others.

Three types of devices are shown in the fog 120, GWs 124, dataaggregators (DAs) 126, and sensors 128, although any combinations ofdevices and functionality may be used. The GWs 124 may be edge devicesthat provide communications between the cloud 100 and the fog 120, andmay also provide the backend process function for data obtained fromsensors 128, such as motion data, flow data, temperature data, and/orother types of sensor data. The DAs 126 may collect data from any numberof the sensors 128, and perform the back end processing function for theanalysis. The results, raw data, or both may be passed along to thecloud 100 through the GWs 124. In some cases, the GWs 124 and/or the DAs126 may operate with little to no user intervention, and thus, may beconsidered to be IoT devices 102. In various embodiments, a GW 124and/or a DA 126 may act as a coordinator or scheduler for communicationsbetween the various IoT devices 102 in the fog 120, including betweenmultiple sensors 128, between sensors 128 and DAs 126, between sensors128 and GWs 126, between GWs 126 and DAs 126, etc. The sensors 128 maybe full IoT devices 102, for example, capable of both collecting dataand processing the data. In some cases, the sensors 128 may be morelimited in functionality, for example, collecting the data and allowingthe DAs 126 or GWs 124 to process the data.

In various embodiments, one or more of the IoT devices 102 may composethemselves into an IoT group or cluster (e.g., IoT groups 106, 110, 112,114, and 116 as discussed previously with regard to FIG. 1A) such thatthe IoT devices 102 in the group act as a functional device/system. TheIoT devices 102 belonging to the IoT group composed into a functionaldevice may be referred to as group or cluster members. In embodiments, aleader IoT device 102 may be selected (or elected) based on functionsavailable that meet the needs of the group/cluster or criteria definedby an operator. In some embodiments, the selected/elected leader IoTdevice 102 may be a DA 126. The selected/elected leader IoT device 102may send a request to find information from other available IoT devices102 connected to and aware in the fog 120. When the leader IoT device102 fails, a new leader IoT device 102 may be elected, and the newleader IoT device 102 may participate in satisfying the request. OtherIoT devices 102 or portions of devices may compose together based onavailable micro-services to provide the leader IoT device 102 with therequested information within time constraints, accuracy, and/or othermetrics that are sent along in the request. Clusters and groups may bebanded and disbanded on an ad hoc basis or per defined groupingsaccording to the needs of the requesting devices. Additionally, a failedmember of the group/cluster may be replaced in the group/cluster as longas the service level agreement originally sent is reestablished. Thevarious embodiments described herein may be performed or implemented bya GW 124, a DA 126, or another device that is capable of acting as anIoT network coordinator.

Communications from any IoT device 102 may be passed along a mostconvenient path between any of the IoT devices 102 to reach the GWs 124.In these networks, the number of interconnections provide substantialredundancy, allowing communications to be maintained, even with the lossof a number of the IoT devices 102. Further, the use of a mesh networkmay allow IoT devices 102 that are very low power or located at adistance from infrastructure to be used, as the range to connect toanother IoT device 102 may be much less than the range to connect to theGWs 124. In various embodiments, the route or path that communicationsfrom an IoT device 102 takes may be determined and coordinated by a GW124, a DA 126, or another device that is capable of acting as an IoTnetwork coordinator.

The fog 120 of these IoT devices 102 devices may be presented to devicesin the cloud 100, such as one or more servers 104, as a single devicelocated at the edge of the cloud 100 (e.g., a fog device). In thisexample, the alerts coming from the fog device may be sent without beingidentified as coming from a specific IoT device 102 within the fog 120.For example, an alert may indicate that a deployed analog or digitaldevice/system is having operational difficulties and present therelevant data, even though the specific IoT devices 102 that determinedthe problems are not specifically identified.

In some examples, the IoT devices 102 may be configured using animperative programming style (e.g., with each IoT device 102 having aspecific function and communication partners). However, the IoT devices102 forming the fog device may be configured in a declarativeprogramming style, allowing the IoT devices 102 to reconfigure theiroperations and communications, such as to determine needed resources inresponse to conditions, queries, and device failures. As an example, aquery from a client device 105 via a server 104 about the operations ofa subset of devices/systems monitored by the IoT devices 102 may resultin the fog device selecting the IoT devices 102, such as one or moreparticular sensors 128, needed to answer the query. The data from thesesensors 128 may then be aggregated and analyzed by any combination ofthe sensors 128, DAs 126, and/or GWs 124, before being sent on by thefog device to the server 104 to answer the query. In embodiments, IoTdevices 102 in the fog 120 may select the sensors 128 used based on thequery, such as adding data from one or more different types of sensors128. If some of the IoT devices 102 are not operational, other IoTdevices 102 in the fog device may provide analogous data, if available.

FIG. 1C shows an arrangement 30 in accordance with various embodiments.As shown in FIG. 1, arrangement 30 may include an environment 108, whichmay include IoT devices 102-1 to 102-4 (collectively referred to as “IoTdevices 102” or individually referred to as “IoT device 102”), GW 124,and client device 105. Arrangement 30 may also include cloud 100, IoTdatabase 115, and one or more servers 104.

Client device 105 may be a physical hardware device that is capable ofrunning one or more applications. Client device 105 may include atransmitter/receiver (or alternatively, a transceiver or RF circuitry),memory, one or more processors, one or more sensors (e.g.,accelerometers, gyroscopes, image sensors, Global Positioning System(“GPS”) receiver, etc.), and/or other like components. Client device 105may communicate (transmit/receive) data with one or more IoT devices 102via GW 124, and communicate data with one or more servers 104 via GW 124and cloud 100. Client device 105 may communicate with the variousdevices in arrangement 30 in accordance with one or more wireless orwired communications protocols as discussed herein. Client device 105may communicate with one or more IoT device 102 in accordance with oneor more wireless communications protocols as discussed herein. Clientdevice 105 may be configured to run, execute, or otherwise operate oneor more applications for controlling or communicating with the one ormore servers 104 and/or the IoT devices 102. These applications may benative applications, web applications, and/or hybrid applications.Client device 105 may be a wireless cellular phone, a smartphone, alaptop personal computer (PCs), a tablet PC, a wearable computingdevice, a handheld messaging device, a personal data assistant, anelectronic book reader, an augmented reality head-mounted (orhelmet-mounted) display device, and/or any other physical or logicaldevice capable of recording, storing, and/or transferring digital data.

According to various embodiments, the IoT devices 102 may communicate inaccordance with different wireless communications protocols. Forexample, IoT devices 102-1 and 102-4 may include an IEEE 802.15.4transceiver configured to communicate using an IEEE 802.15.4 basedprotocol, such as ZigBee, while IoT device 102-2 may be include a WiFitransceiver configured to communicate using WiFi signaling. Inembodiments, some of the IoT devices 102 may be equipped with multiplecommunications logic allowing those IoT devices 102 to communicate usingmultiple wireless communications protocols. For example, IoT device102-3 may include cellular modem circuitry configured to operate inaccordance with a cellular communications protocol, such as LTE orLTE-Advanced. The cellular modem circuitry may also be configured tocommunicate with other devices in a PAN using LTE ProSe or D2Dsignaling. Furthermore, IoT device 102-3 may include a Bluetoothtransceiver, which may allow IoT device 102-3 to communicate with otherdevices in a PAN using Bluetooth or BLE signaling.

In embodiments, the IoT devices 102 may be sensors or other like devicesthat can capture and/or record data associated with an event. Forinstance, in various embodiments, IoT devices 102 may be biotic devicessuch as monitoring implants, biosensors, biochips, and the like.Additionally, IoT devices 102 may be abiotic devices such as autonomoussensors, gauges, and/or meters, MTC devices, M2M devices,electro-mechanical devices (e.g., switch, actuator, etc.), and the like.In other embodiments, the IoT devices 102 may be a computer device thatis embedded in a computer system and coupled with communicationscircuitry of the computer system. In embodiments where an IoT device 102is embedded in a computer system, such an IoT device 102 may be a systemon chip (SoC), a universal integrated circuitry card (UICC), an embeddedUICC (eUICC), and the like. The computer system may be a mobile station(e.g., a smartphone), laptop PC, wearable PC (e.g., a smart watch),appliance (e.g., a television, refrigerator, a security system, etc.),and the like.

An event may be any occurrence of an action, such as a temperaturechange, an electrical output, a change in water usage, an inventorylevel/amount change, a heart rate, a glucose level, astate/position/orientation change of a device, and the like. In variousembodiments, an event may be detected by one or more IoT devices 102based on sensor outputs, timer values, user actions, and reported asmessages to a computing device. Once data associated with an event iscaptured and recorded by an IoT device 102, the captured data may berelayed through the GW 124 and/or the cloud 100 and reported to aservice provider (e.g., an operator of the one or more servers 104),client device 105, and/or another one of the IoT devices 102. Theservice provider, a user of the client device 105 or the client device105 itself, and/or IoT device may take an appropriate action based on anotification of the event (e.g., reduce or increase temperature, restockinventory items, reduce/increase an activity level, reduce/increasesugar intake, and the like). In various embodiments, each of the IoTdevices 102 may connect with or otherwise communicate with the clientdevice 105 or other IoT devices 102 via a direct wireless connection. Insuch embodiments, the data associated with an event may be reported tothe client device 105 or other IoT devices 102 via GW 124 without beingrelayed through the cloud 100. The IoT devices 102 may be configured toreport data on a period or cyclical basis, or based on a desired eventor trigger that is captured and recorded by an IoT device 102. In someembodiments, some of the IoT devices 102 may include one or moreelectro-mechanical components which allow these IoT devices 102 tochange their states, positions, and/or orientations. Theseelectro-mechanical components may include one or more motors, actuators,wheels, thrusters, propellers, claws, clamps, hooks, and/or other likeelectro-mechanical components. In such embodiments, the devices 102 maybe configured to change their states, positions, and/or orientationsbased on one or more captured events and/or instructions or controlsignals received from a service provider (e.g., an operator of the oneor more servers 104) and/or client device 105. In various embodiments,an operator may receive, from one or more IoT devices 102, dataassociated with a captured event and physically control the IoT devices102 by transmitting instructions or other like control signals to theIoT devices 102.

GW 124 may be a network element that employs multi-radio frequencynetworks technology. GW 124 may be configured to provide communicationservices to IoT devices 102 and/or client device 105 operating withinenvironment 108 by coordinating communications among the IoT devices 102and client device 105 within the environment 108. In this regard, the GW124 may act as a centralized hub and/or scheduler for the variousdevices within the environment 108, which may include for example,operating the dynamic channel allocation process of the exampleembodiments (e.g., process 700 as shown and described with regard toFIG. 7). In various embodiments, the GW 124 may also communicate datato/from the one or more servers 104 via the cloud 100 on behalf of theIoT devices 102 and/or client device 105. In this regard, GW 124 may actas a single point of contact between devices that are unable to directlyconnect to larger networks (e.g., cloud 100) and remote computerdevices.

In embodiments, the GW 124 may be a standalone device that isspecifically manufactured to provide IoT devices 102 connectivity tocloud 100, such as an IoT GW or an automation hub. In such embodiments,environment 108 may also include a wireless access point (WAP) or otherlike device that may provide network connectivity to the elements inenvironment 108 (not shown by FIGS. 1A-1C). Further, in suchembodiments, the GW 124 may be communicatively coupled with the WAPthrough a wired or wireless connection. In other embodiments, the GW 124may be a WAP, a home server coupled with RF communications circuitry, asmallcell base station (e.g., a femtocell, picocell, home evolved nodeB(HeNB), and the like), a router, a switch, a hub, a radio beacon, and/orany other like network device. The GW 124 may include one or moreprocessors, communications circuitry (e.g., including a networkinterface, one or more transmitters/receivers connected to one or moreantennas, and the like), and computer readable media. The one or moretransmitters/receivers (or transceivers) may be configured to wirelesslytransmit/receive RF signals to/from one or more IoT devices 102 and/orclient device 105 within the environment 108, and the network interfacemay be configured to transmit/receive data to/from one or more servers104 via cloud 100 using a wired connection. The GW 124 may processand/or route data packets over the wired connection according to one ormore communications protocols, such as Ethernet (e.g., IEEE 802.1,802.2, and 802.3 protocols); Point-to-Point Protocol (PPP) over Ethernet(PPPoE); PPP over asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) (PPPoA); High LevelData Link Control (HDLC); and/or any other like protocols.

IoT database 115 may be a system for storing information for a pluralityof IoT devices. IoT database 115 may include one or more relationaldatabase management systems (RDBMS) one or more object databasemanagement systems (ODBMS), a column-oriented DBMS, correlation databaseDBMS, and the like. According to various example embodiments, the IoTdatabase 115 may be stored on or otherwise associated with one or moredata storage devices. These data storage devices may include at leastone of a primary storage device, a secondary storage device, a tertiarystorage device, a non-linear storage device, and/or other like datastorage devices. In some embodiments, IoT database 115 may be associatedwith one or more network elements that enable one or more clients (e.g.,GW 124 or one or more servers 104) to query the IoT database 115 and/orstore device information in or retrieve device information from the IoTdatabase 115. Furthermore, IoT database 115 may include one or morevirtual machines, such that the physical data storage devices containingthe IoT database 115 may be logically divided into multiple virtual datastorage devices and/or databases. Alternatively, the IoT database 115may reside on one physical hardware data storage device.

The one or more servers 104 may include one or more systems and/orapplications for providing one or more services to one or more clients(e.g., client device 105). In embodiments, the one or more servers 104may include process control computers that are used to provide a humanmachine interface to operators of IoT devices 102. In variousembodiments, the one or more servers 104 may include one or moreprocessors, one or more memory devices and/or computer readable storagemedia, network interfaces, and/or other like components. Additionally,the one or more servers 104 may be a single physical hardware device, ormay be physically or logically connected with other network devices. Theservers 104 may be connected to, or otherwise associated with one ormore data storage devices (not shown). The servers 104 may be any devicecapable of receiving and responding to requests from one or more clientdevices (e.g., client device 105 and/or IoT devices 102) across acomputer network (e.g., cloud 100) to provide one or more services tothe clients. The one or more servers 104 may include an operating systemthat may provide executable program instructions for the generaladministration and operation of one or more servers 104, and thecomputer-readable medium may store instructions that, when executed bythe one or more processors of the servers 104, may allow the servers 104to perform its intended functions. Suitable implementations for theoperating system and general functionality of the servers 104 are knownor commercially available, and are readily implemented by persons havingordinary skill in the art, particularly in light of the disclosureherein. Furthermore, it should be understood that the one or moreservers 104 may not be required and the applications and softwarecomponents discussed herein may be executed on any appropriate device orhost machine.

In some embodiments, the one or more servers 104 may provide IoT deviceservices that may utilize information obtained/recorded by various IoTdevices 102. For example, the services provided by the one or moreservers 104 may include security/safety services (e.g., videosurveillance, burglary monitoring, fire/smoke monitoring, and the like);energy usage analytics and automation services (e.g., utility meterreading, analysis, and reporting); medical and/or athletic performanceanalytics and analysis; manufacturing and/or processing plantmachinery/systems monitoring, and/or any other like services. The one ormore servers 104 may obtain event based data from the IoT devices 102,analyze the event-based data, and may be able to generate content suchas text, graphics, audio and/or video to be transferred to client device105, via a web server (not shown) in the form of HTML, XML, ASP,MPEG-DASH, Java™, JSP, PHP, and/or any other appropriate structuredlanguage or server-side scripting language. The handling of requests andresponses, (e.g., requests for information/content and theinformation/content provided in response) may be handled by the webserver (not shown).

In FIG. 1C, only four IoT devices 102, one GW 124, one client device105, and a single IoT database 115 are shown. According to variousembodiments, any number of devices, any number of GWs, any number ofclient devices, any number of servers, and/or any number of databasesmay be present. Additionally, in some embodiments, the one or moreservers 104 and/or one or more databases may be virtual machines, and/orthey may be provided as part of a cloud computing service. In variousembodiments, one or more servers 104 and one or more databases mayreside on one physical hardware device, and/or may be otherwise fullyintegrated with one another. Thus, the depiction of the illustrativearrangement 30 in FIG. 1C should be taken as being illustrative innature, and not limited to the scope of the disclosure.

FIG. FIG. 2 illustrates the components of a computer device 200, inaccordance with various example embodiments. In embodiments, computerdevice 200 may comprise RF circuitry 205, baseband circuitry 210,processor circuitry 215, memory/storage 220, network interface circuitry(NIC) 230, and input/output (I/O) interface 235, coupled with each otherby bus 245 at least as shown by FIG. 2.

Memory 220 may be a hardware device configured to store an operatingsystem 260 and program code for one or more software components, such asdynamic channel allocation (DCA) application 300 (also referred to as“DCA application 300”) and/or one or more other application(s) 265.Memory 220 may also store wireless communication protocol information(e.g., modulation schema, etc.) and channel information (e.g.,interference signature, data rate, power/energy levels, etc.) in adynamic channel allocation (DCA) database (DB) 270. Memory 220 may be acomputer readable storage medium that may generally include a volatilememory (e.g., random access memory (RAM), synchronous dynamic RAM(SDRAM) devices, double-data rate synchronous dynamic RAM (DDR SDRAM)device, flash memory, and the like), non-volatile memory (e.g., readonly memory (ROM), solid state storage (SSS), non-volatile RAM (NVRAM),and the like), and/or other like storage media capable of storing andrecording data. Instructions, program code and/or software componentsmay be loaded into memory 220 by one or more network elements via cloud100 (e.g., from a remote provisioning service). The program code and/orsoftware components may also be loaded from a separate computer readablestorage medium into memory 220 using a drive mechanism (not shown). Suchseparate computer readable storage medium may include a memory card,memory stick, removable flash drive, sim card, a secure digital (SD)card, and/or other like computer readable storage medium (not shown). Insome embodiments, software components may be loaded into memory 220using over the air (OTA) interfaces using the RF circuitry 205, ratherthan via separate computer readable storage medium or drive mechanism.

During operation, memory 220 may include operating system 260, DCAapplication 300, and other application(s) 265. Operating system 260 maymanage computer hardware and software resources and provide commonservices for computer programs. Operating system 260 may include one ormore drivers that provide an interface to hardware devices therebyenabling operating system 260, DCA application 300, and otherapplication(s) 265 to access hardware functions without needing to knowthe details of the hardware itself. The operating system 260 may be ageneral purpose operating system or an operating system specificallywritten for and tailored to the computer device 200.

DCA application 300 may be a collection of software logic and/or programcode that enables the computer device 200 to operate according to thevarious example embodiments as discussed with regard to FIGS. 3-7. Otherapplication(s) 265 may be a collection of software logic and/or programcode that enables the computer device 200 to perform various function ofthe computer device 200. In embodiments, one of the other applications265 may include a protocol translation/mapping application or protocolconverter application that performs required protocol conversions forcommunications between the IoT devices 102 and a network element ofcloud 100, or for communications between IoT devices 102 that operateaccording to different wireless communications protocols.

Processor circuitry 215 may be configured to carry out instructions of acomputer program by performing the basic arithmetical, logical, andinput/output operations of the system. The term “processor” as usedherein refers to a physical central processing unit (CPU). The processorcircuitry 215 may include a single-core processor, a dual-coreprocessor, a triple-core processor, a quad-core processor, a graphicsprocessing unit (GPU), etc. The processor circuitry 215 may perform avariety of functions for the computer device 200 and may process data byexecuting program code, one or more software logic, firmware,middleware, microcode, hardware description languages, and/or any otherlike set of instructions stored in the memory 220. The program code maybe provided to processor circuitry 215 by memory 220 via bus 245, one ormore drive mechanisms (not shown), and/or via RF circuitry 205. In orderto perform the variety of functions and data processing operations, theprogram code and/or software components may be executed by the processorcircuitry 215. On execution by the processor circuitry 215, theprocessor circuitry 215 may cause computer device 200 to perform thevarious operations and functions delineated by the program code.

For example, the DCA application 300 may include various logicconfigured to operate (through hardware and/or software) to performfunctions in accordance with the example embodiments described herein.The various logical elements of the DCA application 300 may be loadedinto the memory 220. The various logical elements may includeinterference logic; classification logic; selection logic; andcommunications interface logic (as discussed with regard to FIG. 3).Once the various logical elements of the DCA application 300 are loadedinto memory 220 and executed by one or more processors of the processorcircuitry 215, the one or more processors may be configured to causecomputer device 200 to determine, based on a scan of a desired frequencyspectrum, one or more available channels, wherein at least one availablechannel of the one or more available channels is associated with adifferent wireless communication protocol than a wireless communicationprotocol of another available channel of the one or more availablechannels; determine, for each of the one or more available channels, acorresponding interference signature; assign, to each of the one or moreavailable channels, a rank based on the corresponding interferencesignature; select an available channel from among the one or moreavailable channels based on assigned ranks; and transmit one or moredata packets over the selected available channel in accordance with awireless communication protocol associated with the selected availablechannel. While specific logical elements are described herein, it shouldbe recognized that, in various embodiments, various logical elements maybe combined, separated into separate logical elements, and/or omitted.Additionally, in various embodiments, one or more logical elements maybe implemented on separate devices, in separate locations, ordistributed, individually or in sets, across multiple processors,devices, locations, and/or in cloud-computing implementations.

Bus 245 may be configured to enable the communication and data transferbetween processor circuitry 215 and memory 220. Bus 245 may comprise ahigh-speed serial bus, parallel bus, internal universal serial bus(USB), Front-Side-Bus (FSB), a PCI bus, a PCI-Express (PCI-e) bus, aSmall Computer System Interface (SCSI) bus, an Inter-Integrated Circuit(I2C) bus, a universal asynchronous receiver/transmitter (UART) bus,and/or any other suitable communication technology for transferring databetween components within computer device 200.

NIC 230 may be a computer hardware component that connects computerdevice 200 to a computer network, for example, network 135, via a wiredconnection. To this end, NIC 230 may include one or more dedicatedprocessors and/or FPGAs to communicate using one or more wiredcommunications protocol. The wired communications protocols may includea serial communications protocol (e.g., USB, FireWire, Serial DigitalInterface (SDI), and/or other like serial communications protocols), aparallel communications protocol (e.g., IEEE 1284, Computer AutomatedMeasurement And Control (CAMAC), and/or other like parallelcommunications protocols), and/or a network communications protocol(e.g., Ethernet, token ring, Fiber Distributed Data Interface (FDDI),and/or other like network communications protocols). The NIC 230 mayalso include one or more virtual network interfaces configured tooperate with the one or more applications contained of the computerdevice 200.

I/O interface 235 may be a computer hardware component that providescommunication between the computer device 200 and one or more otherdevices. The I/O interface 235 may include one or more user interfacesdesigned to enable user interaction with the computer device 200 and/orperipheral component interfaces designed to provide interaction betweenthe computer device 200 and one or more peripheral components. Userinterfaces may include, but are not limited to a physical keyboard orkeypad, a touchpad, a speaker, a microphone, etc. Peripheral componentinterfaces may include, but are not limited to, a non-volatile memoryport, an audio jack, a power supply interface, a serial communicationsprotocol (e.g., USB, FireWire, SDI, and/or other like serialcommunications protocols), a parallel communications protocol (e.g.,IEEE 1284, CAMAC, and/or other like parallel communications protocols),etc.

The baseband circuitry 210 may include circuitry such as, but notlimited to, one or more single-core or multi-core processors. Theseprocessor(s) may include one or more baseband processors that arededicated to a particular wireless communication protocol. For example,the baseband circuitry 210 may include one or more baseband processorsfor communicating in accordance with GSM and/or EDGE; one or morebaseband processors for communicating in accordance with UMTS and/orLTE/LTE Advanced (LTE-A) (including dedicated baseband processors forsecond generation (2G), third generation (3G), fourth generation (4G),etc.); one or more baseband processors for communicating in accordancewith EVDO, one or more baseband processors for communicating inaccordance with Wi-Fi and/or IEEE 802.11 standards; one or more basebandprocessors for communicating in accordance with IEEE 802.15.4-802.15.5protocols including ZigBee, WirelessHART, 6LoWPAN, etc.; one or morebaseband processors for communicating in accordance with WiMAX; one ormore baseband processors for communicating in accordance with Bluetoothor BLE, and/or one or more baseband processors for communicating inaccordance with any other wireless communication protocols, includingRF-based, optical, and so forth. The baseband circuitry 210 (e.g., oneor more of baseband processors) may handle various radio controlfunctions that enable communication with one or more radio networks viathe RF circuitry 205. The radio control functions may include, but arenot limited to, signal modulation, encoding, decoding, radio frequencyshifting, etc. In various embodiments, baseband circuitry 210 mayinclude circuitry to operate with signals that are not strictlyconsidered as being in a baseband frequency. For example, in someembodiments, baseband circuitry 210 may include circuitry to operatewith signals having an intermediate frequency, which is between abaseband frequency and a radio frequency.

RF circuitry 205 may enable communication with wireless networks usingmodulated electromagnetic radiation through a non-solid medium. Invarious embodiments, the RF circuitry 205 may include switches, filters,amplifiers, etc. to facilitate the communication with one or morewireless networks. The RF circuitry 205 may be coupled with one or moreantenna elements (not shown) to enable communication with one or moreother devices. RF circuitry 205, as controlled by the baseband circuitry210, may generate or otherwise produce radio waves to transmit data toone or more other devices via the one or more antenna elements. The RFcircuitry 205 may be configured to receive and convert a signal from amodulated radio wave into usable information, such as digital data,which may be provided to one or more other components of computer device200 via bus 245. In various embodiments, RF circuitry 205 may includecircuitry to operate with signals that are not strictly considered asbeing in a radio frequency. For example, in some embodiments, RFcircuitry 205 may include circuitry to operate with signals having anintermediate frequency, which is between a baseband frequency and aradio frequency. Furthermore, the RF circuitry 205 may be equipped withmultiple radios operating in different spectrum bands. The RF circuitry205 and the baseband circuitry 210 may be collectively referred to as“communications circuitry.”

The components of computer device 200 may be implemented using anysuitably configured hardware and/or software. For example, in someembodiments baseband circuitry 210, processor circuitry 215, and/ormemory/storage 220, may be packaged together to form a single package orSoC, which in some embodiments may be implemented in GW 124.Additionally, although FIG. 2 illustrates various components of thecomputer device 200, in some embodiments, computer device 200 mayinclude many more components than those shown in FIG. 2, however, it isnot necessary to show and describe such components to illustrate theexample embodiments.

FIG. 3 shows example logical components and interaction points betweencomponents/logic of DCA application 300, components of the computerdevice 200, and the elements of the arrangement 100, according to someembodiments. The DCA application 300 may include communicationsinterface logic (CIL) 305, interference logic 310 (also referred to asan “interference determination logic”), classification logic 315, andselection logic 320. The elements shown by FIG. 3 may operate asfollows.

CIL 305 may communicate data with the one or more servers 104 via NIC230. This data may include providing IoT related data to the one or moreservers 104, and receiving analyzed/processed IoT-related data from theone or more servers 104. The CIL 305 may also receive the IoT-relateddata from one or more IoT devices 102 via the communications circuitry325, and may also provide the analyzed/processed IoT-related data to theclient device 105. In some embodiments, the CIL 305 may receive themeasurement data from the one or more IoT devices 102 and/or the clientdevice 105 via the communications circuitry 325, which may be used forgenerating the interference signatures discussed infra.

In embodiments, CIL 305 may instruct the communications circuitry 325(which may include the baseband circuitry 205 and the RF circuitry 210discussed previously, and which may be coupled with antenna array 330)to perform a scan of the environment 108. An example of such as scan isdepicted by the dashed lines in FIG. 3, and may be performed using knownmethods (e.g., sector level sweep (SLS), beaconing, channel sensing,etc.). The scan may be of an entire frequency spectrum (e.g., the entireindustrial-scientific-medical (ISM) band including 6.7 MHz to 246 GHz,and the like) or a desired portion of the frequency spectrum (e.g.,frequencies allocated to one or more of low-powered PANs, WiFi, and/orcellular communications including 2.4 GHz to 5.8 GHz, or frequencies inan unlicensed band such as a 60 GHz band and the like). The instructionmay be received from the interference logic 310, or the CIL 305. Theinstruction may instruct the communications circuitry 325 to perform thescan of the environment 108 on a periodic basis or at a predeterminedtime interval. In other embodiments, the scan may be performed in a(substantially) continuous manner. The periodic or continuous monitoringof the environment 108 for any changes in the interference may be usedto continuously adapt the dynamic channel allocation to cope withchanging interference patterns. The CIL 305 may receive data indicativeof the performed scan from the communications circuitry 325 and providethis data to the interference logic.

The interference logic 310 may receive the data indicative of theperformed scan, and determine one or more available channels based onthe scan of the desired frequency spectrum. The data indicative of thescan obtained from the CIL 205 may be measurement data/values, orinformation used by the interference logic 310 to determine themeasurement data/values. In various embodiments, at least one availablechannel of the one or more available channels may be associated with adifferent wireless communication protocol than a wireless communicationprotocol of another available channel of the one or more availablechannels. For example, environment 108 may include a WiFi router thatprovides a WiFi network in the environment 108 (not shown), IoT devices102-1 and 102-4 may communicate using the ZigBee protocol, IoT device102-2 may communicate using WiFi signaling, and the IoT device 102-3 maycommunicate using BLE and Thread signaling. In this case, theinterference logic 310 may determine one or more available channels inthe environment 108 among the WiFi, ZigBee, BLE, and Thread networks.The interference logic 310 may also determine an aggressor network andone or more victim networks from among the available channels. Anaggressor network may be a network or a set of available channels thatcause interference with other available channels in the environment 108.A victim network maybe a network or a set of available channels underinterference by the set of channels of the aggressor network. Continuingwith the previous example, the interference logic 310 may determine thatthe WiFi network is acting as an aggressor network while the ZigBee,BLE, and Thread networks are victim networks.

The interference logic 310 may also determine an interference signaturefor each of the one or more available channels. The interferencesignature may be a measurement or value, or a collection/aggregation ofmeasurement values, that is/are indicative of an amount of interferenceexperienced by each of the available channels due to, for example,co-channel interference or adjacent channel interference, or an amountof interference experienced by the GW 126, the IoT devices 102, and/orthe client device 105 for each of the available channels. The channelsmay be measured by the computer device 200 (e.g., using thecommunications circuitry 325), or measured by another device andcommunicated back to the computer device 200. For example, when thecomputer device 200 is the GW 126, measurements may be collected by theIoT devices 102 and/or the client device 105 and report back to the GW126. As examples, the measurements and/or the interference signaturesmay be, or may be based on an energy detection (ED) operation and/or oneor more of the following measurements: bit error ratio (BER), BlockError Rate (BLER), signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), signal-to-interference(SIR) ratio or carrier-to-interference ratio,signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio (SINR), signal-to-noise anddistortion (SINAD) ratio, channel interference measurements, thermalnoise power measurements, received interference power measurements,peak-to-average power ratio (PAPR), Reference Signal Received Power(RSRP), Received Signal Strength Indicator (RSSI), Reference SignalReceived Quality (RSRQ), a Received Signal Strength Indicator (RSSI),received channel power indicator (RCPI), Global nevigation satellitesystem (GNSS) timing of cell frames for user equipment (UE) positioningfor E-UTRAN or 5G/NR (e.g., a timing between a base station (e.g., GW126) reference time and a GNSS-specific reference time for a givenGNSS), GNSS code measurements (e.g., the GNSS code phase (integer andfractional parts) of the spreading code of the ith GNSS satellitesignal), GNSS carrier phase measurements (e.g., the number ofcarrier-phase cycles (integer and fractional parts) of the ith GNSSsatellite signal, measured since locking onto the signal; also calledAccumulated Delta Range (ADR)), path loss, bandwidth (BW), network orcell load, latency, jitter, round trip time (RTT), number of interrupts,out-of-order delivery of data packets, transmission power, bit errorrate, packet delay time, packet loss rate, packet reception rate (PRR),and/or other like measurements or information that may indicate a levelor amount of traffic in a communications network. In embodiments wherean available channel belongs to a cellular network (e.g., 3GPP LTE or5G/NR), the measurements and/or interference signature could be based onRSRP, RSSI, and/or RSRQ measurements of cell-specific reference signals,channel state information reference signals (CSI-RS), and/orsynchronization signals (SS) or SS blocks. In embodiments where anavailable channel belongs to a WLAN network (e.g., IEEE 802.11 or WiFi),the measurements and/or interference signature could be based on RSRP,RSSI, and/or RSRQ measurements of various beacon, FILS discovery frames,or probe response frames. Other measurements may be additionally oralternatively used, such as those discussed in 3GPP TS 36.214 v15.4.0,3GPP TS 38.215, IEEE 802.11, Part 11: “Wireless LAN Medium AccessControl (MAC) and Physical Layer (PHY) specifications, IEEE Std.”,and/or the like.

In embodiments, the interference signature may be indicative of a typeof interference experienced by an available channel. For example, theinterference signature may indicate that an available channel isexperiencing Additive White Gaussian Noise (AWGN), flat spectruminterference, bumpy spectrum interference, and the like. AWGN may be anyrandom noise added to a signal or channel for all frequencies at a givenpower level. Flat spectrum interference may be any broadbandinterference that affects the channel under consideration at equal powerin the channel's narrow band of operation, which may result in areduction of a signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of a channel and/orvariations in the amplitude of the channel. Flat spectrum interferencemay occur in networks using an Orthogonal Frequency DivisionMultiplexing (OFDM) scheme such as LTE/LTE-A cellular networks and IEEE802.11a, 802.11g, 802.11ac, 802.11d, and 802.11n networks. Bumpyspectrum interference may be any other interference that is not treatedas AWGN. In some embodiments, bumpy spectrum interference may beinterference having a non-uniform power distribution in the frequencyband under consideration. Bumpy spectrum interference typically occur innetworks using an offset quadrature phase-shift keying (OQPSK) and/orDirect-sequence Spread Spectrum (DSSS) scheme such as legacy IEEE 802.11(e.g., WiFi) networks, IEEE 802.15.4 (e.g., ZigBee, 6LoWPAN, etc.)networks, and Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) networks. However,other types of wireless networks could experience bumpy interferencebased on device implementations and/or deployment scenarios, forexample. The interference logic 310 may then pass, to the classificationlogic 315, the interference signature of each available channel and thewireless communication protocol of each available channel.

The classification logic 315 may receive the interference signatures andwireless communication protocols from the interference logic 310, andmay rank and classify each of the available channels based on theinterference signatures. The available channels may be ranked/classifiedsuch that available channels experiencing lower amounts of interferenceare ranked/classified higher than available channels experiencinggreater amounts of interference. In embodiments, the classificationlogic 315 may differentiate between channels belonging to an aggressornetwork from channels belonging to victim networks. In some embodiments,the channels belonging to victim networks may be ranked/classified whileaggressor network channels may be unranked. In embodiments, theclassification logic 315 may also assign a priority or “class” to eachavailable channel (see e.g., FIG. 4). The classification logic 315 mayalso assign the rank to each available channel based on the assignedpriority or class. The classification logic 315 may also rank/classifythe available channels according to a data rate of each channel suchthat available channels with higher data rates are ranked higher thanavailable channels with lower data rates. The classification of achannel as having a high data rate or a low data rate may be based on athreshold value that is a percentage of a maximum available data ratefor a particular wireless communications protocol. For example, ZigBeechannels may typically have a maximum data rate of 250 kbps, and athreshold may be defined as 50% of 250 kbps or 125 kbps where a ZigBeechannel having a data rate greater than or equal to 125 kbps may beclassified as having a high data rate while a ZigBee channel having adata rate below 125 kbps may be classified as having a low data rate.These threshold values may be based on design choice or one or moreempirical studies. An example classification/ranking scheme foravailable channels is shown by FIG. 4.

FIG. 4 shows an example classification and/or ranking scheme for DCA,according to some embodiments. As shown by the table 400 of FIG. 4,channels where there is no interference, e.g., non-overlapping channelswith the aggressor network may be classified as “Class 1”, channelsexperiencing interference from the aggressor network can be consideredas AWGN and operate with a relatively high data rate may be classifiedas “Class 2a”, channels experiencing interference from the aggressornetwork can be considered as AWGN and operate with a relatively low datarate may be classified as “Class 2b”, channels at an edge of flatspectrum interference and operate with a relatively high data rate maybe classified as “Class 3 a”, channels at the edge of flat spectruminterference and operate with a relatively low data rate may beclassified as “Class 3b”, channels operating in ‘bumpy’ spectrum ofinterference and operate with a relatively high data rate may beclassified as “Class 3c”, and channels operating in ‘bumpy’ spectrum ofinterference and operate with a relatively low data rate may beclassified as “Class 3d”. In embodiments, the classes illustrated byFIG. 4 may be applicable only to victim networks because aggressornetworks typically do not experience interference from other networks.However, in some embodiments, channels belonging to an aggressor networkmay be given some classification or identifier to indicate that suchchannels should not be ranked, for example, by classified aggressornetwork channels with a “Class 0” or other like identifier. Table 400 ismeant to be illustrative and other classification or ranking schemes maybe used in other embodiments.

Referring back to FIG. 3, the classification logic 315 may store theavailable channels in the DCA DB 270. The DCA DB 270 may store eachavailable channel in association with a corresponding wirelesscommunication protocol, a modulation type/schema of the wirelesscommunication protocol, a data rate of the channel/signal, and receivedRF power level and/or energy level of the channel/signal. In someembodiments, the DCA DB 270 may be populated based on the type of devicethat wishes to communicate over the available channel (e.g., clientdevice 105 or IoT device 102). Example classification/rankings in theDCA DB 270 for available channels is shown by FIGS. 5-6.

FIG. 5 shows an example table 500 of entries in a DCA DB 270, accordingto various embodiments. As shown by table 500 of FIG. 5, availablechannels and their associated wireless communications protocols may belisted with associated interference signatures. The channel specificparameters may be parameters that are specific to an available channel.For example, table 500 shows a victim ZigBee network (e.g., entry 3)that is operating in an environment with two WLAN networks acting asaggressor networks (e.g., the IEEE 802.11b network listed in entry 1 andthe IEEE 802.11n network listed in entry 2). The interference signaturesfor the WLAN networks are listed as “aggressor” to indicate that thesenetworks are acting as aggressor networks. Further, table 500 also showsthat each channel of the ZigBee network (e.g., channels 11-26) isavailable and also shows an interference signature for each availablechannel of the ZigBee network. As shown by table 500, channels 13-17 ofthe ZigBee network may have a direct overlap with the channels of theaggressor networks, channels 11-12 and 22-26 of the ZigBee network mayhave no overlap with the channels of the aggressor networks, andchannels 14, 17 and 19-22 of the ZigBee network may be experiencingbumpy interference. In embodiments, the classification logic 315 mayrank/classify channels of the ZigBee network according to theirclassifications and data rates as shown by FIG. 5.

FIG. 6 shows an example of entries in a DCA DB 270, according to someembodiments. As shown by table 600 of FIG. 6, available channels andtheir associated wireless communications protocols may be listed withassociated interference signatures, channel specific parameters, andprotocol specific parameters.

The protocol specific parameters may be parameters that are specific tothe wireless communication protocol, such as protocol name, modulationschema, number of channels, bandwidth per channel, maximum power perchannel, and a maximum data rate. For example, entry 3 of table 600lists an available BLE channel according to channel specific parametersand protocol parameters. The protocol parameters for entry 3 may includethe protocol name (e.g., BLE), a modulation schema (e.g., Gaussianfrequency shift keying (GFSK) modulation), a number of channels (e.g.,40), a bandwidth per channel (e.g., 2 megahertz (MHz)), maximum powerper channel (e.g., 10 milliwatts (mW)), and a maximum data rate (e.g., 1megabits per second (Mbps)). The protocol specific parameters may bebased on the highest achievable values that are theoretically possiblefor each wireless communication protocol. For example, entry 1 of table600 may list 600 Mbps as the maximum data rate per channel of the IEEE802.11n network, which may be a highest achievable data rate for a WiFinetwork using multiple input multiple output (MIMO) with four antennaelements that may allow four simultaneous 72.2 Mbps data streams with 20MHz channels. Furthermore, the DCA DB 270 may also include otherprotocol parameters not shown by table 500, such as supported devicetypes, network provider identifiers, and the like.

The channel specific parameters may be parameters that are specific tothe available channel, such as the channel number of the availablechannel, a transmission power of the available channel, a data rate ofthe available channel, the interference signature of the availablechannel, and a classification/rank of the available channel. Forexample, entry 4 of table 600 lists channel specific parameters of theZigBee channel, including a channel number of the available channel(e.g., 16), a transmission power of the available channel (e.g., 0.9mW), a data rate of the available channel (e.g., 100 kilobits per second(kbps)), the interference signature of the available channel (e.g.,AGWN; victim), and a classification/rank (e.g., 2a). Furthermore, theDCA DB 270 may also include other channel specific parameters not shownby table 600.

Additionally, the entries in the table 600 may vary based on deviceimplementations, as well as protocol limitations and/or specifications.For example, entries 2-4 of table 600 show that the Thread and ZigBeenetworks may use OQPSK and/or DSSS as their modulation schemes. In someembodiments, the particular modulation scheme used may be based on thefrequency spectrum in which these networks operate, which may alsoaffect the data rate and channel bandwidths. By way of another example,entries 2 and 4 may use the same protocol (e.g., ZigBee) but may beassociated with different network providers and/or different devices,and in some embodiments, the values in entries 2 and 4 may be altered toreflect the device type or network provider. Furthermore, the entries inthe table 600 may vary based on jurisdictional or regulatorylimitations. For example, entries 2 and 4 in table 600 show that theZigBee networks have 16 channels each having 5 MHz of bandwidth andhaving a maximum data rate of 250 kbps per channel. These values may bebased on the ZigBee channel operating in the 2.4 GHz band, which istypical for most jurisdictions outside of the United States. However, inthe United States the ZigBee protocol is relegated to operating in the915 MHz band, which may reduce the maximum data rate per channel to 40kbps.

Referring back to FIG. 3, the selection logic 320 may select one of theavailable channels based on assigned classifications or ranks. Inembodiments, the selection logic 320 may select a channel of a victimnetwork having a highest rank among the available channels. In someembodiments, the selection logic may also implement a random selectionprocedure to select an available channel when more than one availablechannel have a same rank/classification. In such embodiments, using therandom selection procedure, the selection logic 320 may randomly choosean available channel from the available channels having the same rank orclassification. For example, referring to table 500 of FIG. 5, theselection logic 320 may select one of the channels 11-12 or 22-26 of theZiggBee network at random since those channels have the greatestpriority classification (e.g., Class 1).

In embodiments, the selection logic 320 determine, based on another scanof the selected available channel, whether any other channels associatedwith a same wireless communication protocol are operating on theselected available channel, and may select another available channelwhen another channel associated with the same wireless communicationprotocol is operating on the selected channel. For example, referring totable 600 of FIG. 6, the selection logic 320 may select the ZigBeechannel 16 in entry 4 for a ZigBee-enabled IoT device 102 because ZigBeechannel 16 has a highest classification/ranking among the ZigBee networkentries in table 600 (e.g., class/rank 2a). In embodiments, theselection logic 320 may instruct the CIL 305 to perform an active scanin the selected channel to make sure that no other networks of the samewireless communication protocol are operating in that channel. Forexample, when the selection logic 320 selects ZigBee channel 16 based onthe ranking/classification, and since the ZigBee protocol includeschannels that 11-26 range from about 2.405 GHz to 2.480 GHz, theselection logic 320 may instruct the CIL 305 to perform an active scanof ZigBee networks operating in or around 2.430 GHz to determine whetherany other ZigBee networks are operating in ZigBee channel 16. If the CIL305 determines that no other ZigBee networks are operating in ZigBeechannel 16, then the CIL 305 may control transmission of an instructionto a ZigBee-enabled IoT device 102 (e.g., IoT devices 102-1 or 102-4discussed with regard to FIG. 1C) that the ZigBee-enabled IoT device 102may transmit or receive data packets using ZigBee channel 16. In someembodiments, the CIL 305 may control transmission of data packets thatwere previously received from a ZigBee-enabled IoT device 102 (e.g., IoTdevice 102-1) to another ZigBee-enabled IoT device 102 (e.g., IoT device102-4) using ZigBee channel 16. The CIL 305 may also provide theselection logic 320 with a result of the additional scan, and theselection logic 320 may store the results in the DCA DB 270. If the CIL305 determines that another ZigBee network is operating in ZigBeechannel 16, then the CIL 305 may notify the selection logic 320 of thisdetermination, and the selection logic 320 may select another availablechannel having a next highest ranking/classification, such as ZigBeechannel 18 listed in entry 2 of table 600. In some embodiments, theselection logic 320 may also select the Thread channel 12 if thereceiving device is capable of communicating in accordance with thatwireless communications protocol. The aforementioned operations may berepeated until a selected available channel is determined to be opened.

FIG. 7 is a flowchart illustrating an example process 700 of the DCAapplication 300, in accordance with various embodiments. Forillustrative purposes, the operations of process 700 will be describedas being performed by computer device 200 of FIGS. 2-3 in conjunctionwith the elements of FIG. 1. The operations described correspond to thealgorithmic logic of the described logic performing the operations.However, it should be noted that other computing devices may operate theprocess 700 in a multitude of arrangements and/or environments. Whileparticular examples and orders of operations are illustrated in FIG. 7,in various embodiments, these operations may be re-ordered, separatedinto additional operations, combined, or omitted altogether.

Referring to FIG. 7, at operation 705, the computer device 200 (e.g.,via interference logic 310) may instruct communications circuitry 325 toperform a scan of a desired RF spectrum in environment 108. At operation710, the computer device 200 may determine whether there are anyavailable channels in the desired RF spectrum. If the computer device200 determines that there are no available channels in the desired RFspectrum, then the computer device 200 may proceed back to operation 705to perform another scan of the desired RF spectrum. In embodiments, thecomputer device 200 may wait for a predetermined period of time beforeperforming the new scan, or the computer device 200 may perform the scanon a periodic basis or at a desired interval regardless of whether anavailable channel is found at operation 710. If the computer device 200determines that there are one or more available channels in the desiredRF spectrum, then the computer device 200 may proceed to operation 715to determine an interference signature for each of the availablechannels.

At operation 715, the computer device 200 (e.g., through interferencelogic 310) may determine an interference signature for each of theavailable channels. The interference signature may be based on an amountof interference being experienced by an available channel or a type ofinterference being experienced by an available channel. At operation620, the computer device 200 (e.g., through classification logic 315)may assign a rank to each of the available channels based on theircorresponding interference signature. In embodiments, the computerdevice 200 may store each available channel in association with anassociated wireless communication protocol, the correspondinginterference signature, and ranking.

At operation 725, the computer device 200 (e.g., through selection logic320) may select an available channel having a highest or greatest rank.At operation 730, the computer device 200 may instruct communicationscircuitry 325 to perform a scan of the selected channel. At operation735, the computer device 200 may determine whether any other networks ofthe same wireless communication protocol as the selected channel areoperating in the selected channel. If the computer device 200 determinesthat another network of the same wireless communication protocol isoperating in the selected channel, then the computer device 200 mayproceed to operation 740 to select another channel having a next highestrank. Once selected, the computer device 200 may proceed back tooperation 735 to determine whether any other networks of the samewireless communication protocol as the other selected channel areoperating in the other selected channel.

If at operation 735 the computer device 200 determines that no othernetworks of the same wireless communication protocol are operating inthe selected channel, then the computer device 200 may proceed tooperation 745 to communicate data packets using the selected channel. Inembodiments, the computer device 200 may transmit or receive datapackets using the selected channel on behalf of the device. For example,the computer device 200 may have received one or more data packets fromone of the IoT devices 102 prior to or during operation of process 700.At operation 745, the computer device 200 may transmit the one or moredata packets to the client device 105 or another IoT device 102. Priorto transmission, the computer device 200 may translate the one or moredata packets into a format specified by the wireless communicationprotocol of the selected channel if the intended recipient is notenabled to communicate in accordance with such a protocol. In someembodiments, the computer device 200 may instruct a device to transmitor receive data packets using the selected channel. For example, thecomputer device 200 may have received a request message from one of theIoT devices 102 prior to or during operation of process 700. The requestmessage may include a request to establish a network connection withanother IoT device 102 or the client device 105. At operation 745, thecomputer device 200 (e.g., through communication interface logic 305)may transmit an instruction to the IoT device 102 indicating that theIoT device 102 may establish the network connection with the clientdevice 105 or the other IoT device 102 over the selected channel.

Once the data packets are communicated, the computer device 200 mayproceed back to operation 705 to perform the scan of the desired RFspectrum. In embodiments, process 700 may continuously or periodicallyrepeat to update the interference signatures and dynamically allocatechannels for multiple wireless communications protocols.

Some non-limiting Examples are provided below.

Example 1 may include a computer device comprising: one or moreprocessors, coupled with a memory and radio frequency (RF) circuitry,wherein the one or more processors are to operate: classification logicto assign a rank to each of a plurality of available channels, whereinthe classification logic is to assign ranks based on correspondinginterference signatures of the plurality of available channels, whereinat least one available channel of the plurality of available channels isassociated with a different wireless communication protocol than awireless communication protocol of another available channel of theplurality of available channels; selection logic to select an availablechannel from among the plurality of available channels, wherein theselection logic is to select an available channel based on assignedranks; and communications interface logic to control transmission of adata packet to another computer device in accordance with a wirelesscommunication protocol associated with the selected available channel,wherein the data packet is to instruct the other computer device totransmit over the selected available channel.

Example 2 may include the computer device of example 1, furthercomprising: interference logic to be operated by the one or moreprocessors to determine the plurality of available channels, wherein theinterference logic is to determine the plurality of available channelsbased on a scan of a desired frequency spectrum and a correspondinginterference signature for each of the plurality of available channels.

Example 3 may include the computer device of example 2, wherein theinterference logic is to: determine, from among the plurality ofavailable channels, an aggressor network and one or more victimnetworks, wherein the aggressor network comprises a set of the pluralityof available channels that cause interference with other ones of theplurality of available channels, and wherein each of the one or morevictim networks comprise a set of the plurality of available channelsunder interference by the set of the plurality of available channels ofthe aggressor network.

Example 4 may include the computer device of example 3, wherein theclassification logic is further to: classify the set of the plurality ofavailable channels of the one or more victim networks according to atype of interference caused by the aggressor network.

Example 5 may include the computer device of example 4, wherein toclassify the set of the plurality of available channels of the one ormore victim networks, the classification logic is to: assign a firstpriority to the plurality of available channels that do not overlap withan available channel of the aggressor network; assign a second priorityto the plurality of available channels with experience of Additive WhiteGaussian Noise (AWGN) interference from an available channel of theaggressor network; assign a third priority to the plurality of availablechannels with experience of flat spectrum interference from an availablechannel of the aggressor network; and assign a fourth priority to theplurality of available channels with experience of bumpy spectruminterference from an available channel of the aggressor network, andwherein the first priority is greater than the second priority, thesecond priority is greater than the third priority, and the thirdpriority is greater than the fourth priority.

Example 6 may include the computer device of example 5, wherein theclassification logic is to assign the rank to each of the plurality ofavailable channels based on an assigned priority of each of theplurality of available channels, and wherein the classification logic isto further rank each of the plurality of available channels according anassociated data rate.

Example 7 may include the computer device of example 6, wherein theselection logic is further to implement a random selection procedure toselect the available channel when the plurality of available channelsincludes at least two available channels with a same rank, whereinimplementation of the random selection procedure is to randomly choosean available channel from among the at least two available channels withthe same rank.

Example 8 may include the computer device of example 2, wherein: theinterference logic is to determine whether any other channels associatedwith a same wireless communication protocol are operating on theselected available channel based on another scan of the selectedavailable channel; the selection logic is to select another availablechannel when at least one other channel associated with a same wirelesscommunication protocol is operating on the selected available channel;and the communications interface logic is to control transmission of thedata packet when no other channels associated with a same wirelesscommunication protocol are operating on the selected available channel.

Example 9 may include the computer device of example 1, wherein theinterference logic is to determine the interference signature is basedon an energy detection (ED) operation or a Received Signal StrengthIndicator (RSSI).

Example 10 may include the computer device of example 1, wherein theclassification logic and/or the selection logic is further to: store, ina dynamic channel allocation (DCA) database (DB), each available channelof the plurality of available channels; and store, in the DCA DB, acorresponding wireless communication protocol used by each availablechannel of the plurality of available channels, wherein correspondingwireless communication protocol used by each available channel includesa radio frequency (RF) power level, a data rate, and a modulationschema.

Example 11 may include the computer device of example 1, wherein thecommunications interface logic is to: control, at a predeterminedinterval, scans of the desired frequency spectrum and determine thecorresponding interference signature for each available channel based oneach performed scan.

Example 12 may include the computer device of examples 1-11, wherein thecomputer device is a system on chip (SoC) including the one or moreprocessors and the memory, and wherein the SoC is implemented in awireless gateway, an Internet of Things (IoT) gateway, a wireless accesspoint, a base station, a radio beacon, a smart phone, a tablet personalcomputer (PC), a laptop PC, a desktop PC, or a wearable computer device.

Example 13 may include the computer device of example 12, wherein theone or more wireless communication protocols comprise at least two ofFifth Generation (5G) or New Radio (NR), Long Term Evolution (LTE);Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS); Global System forMobile Communications (GSM); Enhanced Data GSM Environment (EDGE); anInstitute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 802.11 protocol(WiFi); an IEEE 802.16 protocol (Wi-MAX), one or more IEEE 802.15.4based protocols; Bluetooth or Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) protocols; ANTprotocol; 3GPP device-to-device (D2D) or Proximity Services (ProSe)protocols; Z-Wave protocol; SigFox protocol; Platanus protocol; orUniversal Plug and Play (UPnP).

Example 14 may include one or more computer readable media includinginstructions, which when executed by one or more processors of acomputer device, cause the computer device to: assign a rank to eachavailable channel of a plurality of available channels, whereinassignment of the ranks is based on corresponding interferencesignatures of the plurality of available channels, and wherein at leastone available channel of the plurality of available channels isassociated with a different wireless communication protocol than awireless communication protocol of another available channel of theplurality of available channels; select an available channel from amongthe plurality of available channels based on assigned ranks; andtransmit one or more data packets over the selected available channel inaccordance with a wireless communication protocol associated with theselected available channel. The computer readable media may be anon-transitory computer-readable media.

Example 15 may include the one or more computer readable media ofexample 14, wherein execution of the instructions cause the computerdevice to: determine the plurality of available channels, wherein thedetermination of the plurality of available channels is based on a scanof a desired frequency spectrum; and determine a correspondinginterference signature for each available channel of the one or moreavailable channels.

Example 16 may include the one or more computer readable media ofexample 15, wherein the corresponding interference signature isindicative of an amount of interference experienced by each of theplurality of available channels.

Example 17 may include the one or more computer readable media ofexample 16, wherein to assign the rank to each of the plurality ofavailable channels, execution of the instructions cause the computerdevice to: assign, to each of the plurality of available channels, therank such that available channels with a lower amount of interferenceare ranked higher than channels with a greater amount of interference.

Example 18 may include the one or more computer readable media ofexample 12, wherein execution of the instructions cause the computerdevice to: store, in a dynamic channel allocation (DCA) database (DB),each available channel of the plurality of available channels; andstore, in the DCA DB, a corresponding wireless communication protocolused by each available channel of the plurality of available channels,wherein corresponding wireless communication protocol used by eachavailable channel includes a radio frequency (RF) power level, a datarate, and a modulation schema.

Example 19 may include the one or more computer readable media ofexample 12, wherein execution of the instructions cause the computerdevice to: determine, from among the plurality of available channels, anaggressor network and one or more victim networks, wherein the aggressornetwork comprises a set of the plurality of available channels thatcause interference with other ones of the plurality of availablechannels, and wherein each of the one or more victim networks comprise aset of the plurality of available channels under interference by the setof the plurality of available channels of the aggressor network, andclassify the set of the plurality of available channels of the one ormore victim networks according to a type of interference caused by theaggressor network.

Example 20 may include the one or more computer readable media ofexample 17, wherein each of the plurality of available channels arefurther ranked according an associated data rate.

Example 21 may include the one or more computer readable media ofexample 14, wherein execution of the instructions cause the computerdevice to: determine, based on another scan of the selected availablechannel, whether any other channels associated with a same wirelesscommunication protocol are operating on the selected available channel;and select another available channel when at least one other channelassociated with a same wireless communication protocol is operating onthe selected available channel.

Example 22 may include the one or more computer readable media ofexample 15, wherein execution of the instructions cause the computerdevice to: scan, at a predetermined interval, the desired frequencyspectrum and determine the corresponding interference signature for eachavailable channel based on the scan.

Example 23 may include the one or more computer readable media ofexamples 14-22, wherein the computer device, including the one or moreprocessors, is implemented in a system on chip (SoC), wherein the SoC isimplemented in a wireless gateway, an Internet of Things (IoT) gateway,a wireless access point, a base station, a radio beacon, a smart phone,a tablet personal computer (PC), a laptop PC, a desktop PC, or awearable computer device, and wherein the one or more wirelesscommunication protocols comprise at least two of Fifth Generation (5G)or New Radio (NR), Long Term Evolution (LTE); Universal MobileTelecommunications System (UMTS); Global System for MobileCommunications (GSM); Enhanced Data GSM Environment (EDGE); an Instituteof Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 802.11 protocol (WiFi);an IEEE 802.16 protocol (Wi-MAX), one or more IEEE 802.15.4 basedprotocols; Bluetooth or Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) protocols; ANTprotocol; LTE device-to-device (D2D) or Proximity Services (ProSe)protocols; Z-Wave protocol; SigFox protocol; Platanus protocol; and/orUniversal Plug and Play (UPnP).

Example 24 may include a computer-implemented method for dynamicallocation of channels of a desired frequency spectrum, the methodcomprising: determining, by a computer device, based on a scan of thedesired frequency spectrum, plurality of available channels, wherein atleast one available channel of the plurality of available channels isassociated with a different wireless communication protocol than awireless communication protocol of another available channel of theplurality of available channels; determining, by the computer device, acorresponding interference signature for each of the plurality ofavailable channels; assigning, by the computer device, a rank based onthe corresponding interference signature to each of the plurality ofavailable channels; selecting, by the computer device, an availablechannel from among the plurality of available channels based on assignedranks; and transmitting, by the computer device, one or more datapackets over the selected available channel in accordance with awireless communication protocol associated with the selected availablechannel.

Example 25 may include the method of example 21, wherein thecorresponding interference signature is indicative of an amount ofinterference experienced by each of the plurality of available channels.

Example 26 may include the method of example 22, wherein assigning therank to each of the plurality of available channels comprises:assigning, by the computer device to each of the plurality of availablechannels, the rank such that available channels with a lower amount ofinterference are ranked higher than channels with a greater amount ofinterference.

Example 27 may include the method of example 23, further comprising:ranking, by the computer device, each of the plurality of availablechannels according an associated data rate.

Example 28 may include the method of example 21, further comprising:determining, by the computer device based on another scan of theselected available channel, whether any other channels associated with asame wireless communication protocol are operating on the selectedavailable channel; and selecting, by the computer device, anotheravailable channel when at least one other channel associated with a samewireless communication protocol is operating on the selected availablechannel.

Example 29 may include the method of example 21, further comprising:scanning, by the computer device at a predetermined interval, thedesired frequency spectrum and determine the corresponding interferencesignature for each available channel based on each scan.

Example 30 may include the method of example 24, wherein determining theinterference signature is based on an energy detection (ED) operation ora Received Signal Strength Indicator (RSSI).

Example 31 may include the method of examples 24-30, wherein the methodis performed by a computer device implemented in a system on chip (SoC),wherein the SoC is implemented in a wireless gateway, an Internet ofThings (IoT) gateway, a wireless access point, a base station, a radiobeacon, a smart phone, a tablet personal computer (PC), a laptop PC, adesktop PC, or a wearable computer device, and wherein the one or morewireless communication protocols comprise at least two of FifthGeneration (5G) or New Radio (NR), Long Term Evolution (LTE); UniversalMobile Telecommunications System (UMTS); Global System for MobileCommunications (GSM); Enhanced Data GSM Environment (EDGE); an Instituteof Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 802.11 protocol (WiFi);an IEEE 802.16 protocol (Wi-MAX), one or more IEEE 802.15.4 basedprotocols; Bluetooth or Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) protocols; ANTprotocol; LTE device-to-device (D2D) or Proximity Services (ProSe)protocols; Z-Wave protocol; SigFox protocol; Platanus protocol; and/orUniversal Plug and Play (UPnP).

Example 32 may include one or more computer-readable media includinginstructions, which when executed by one or more processors of acomputer device, cause the computer device to perform the method ofexamples 24-30. The computer readable media may be a non-transitorycomputer-readable media.

Example 33 may include a computer device comprising: classificationmeans for assigning a rank to each of a plurality of available channels,wherein the classification means is for assigning ranks based oncorresponding interference signatures of the plurality of availablechannels, wherein at least one available channel of the plurality ofavailable channels is associated with a different wireless communicationprotocol than a wireless communication protocol of another availablechannel of the plurality of available channels; selection means forselecting an available channel from among the plurality of availablechannels, wherein the selection means is for selecting an availablechannel based on assigned ranks; and communications means fortransmitting data packet to another computer device, wherein the datapacket is to instruct the other computer device to transmit over theselected available channel, wherein the communications means is furtherfor transmitting the data packet in accordance with a wirelesscommunication protocol associated with the selected available channel.

Example 34 may include the computer device of example 33, furthercomprising: interference determination means for determining theplurality of available channels, wherein the interference determinationmeans for determining the plurality of available channels based on ascan of a desired frequency spectrum and a corresponding interferencesignature for each of the plurality of available channels.

Example 35 may include the computer device of example 34, wherein theinterference determination means is for: determining, from among theplurality of available channels, an aggressor network and one or morevictim networks, wherein the aggressor network comprises a set of theplurality of available channels that cause interference with other onesof the plurality of available channels, and wherein each of the one ormore victim networks comprise a set of the plurality of availablechannels under interference by the set of the plurality of availablechannels of the aggressor network.

Example 36 may include the computer device of example 35, wherein theclassification means is further for: classifying the set of theplurality of available channels of the one or more victim networksaccording to a type of interference caused by the aggressor network.

Example 37 may include the computer device of example 36, wherein toclassify the set of the plurality of available channels of the one ormore victim networks, the classification means is for: assigning a firstpriority to the plurality of available channels that do not overlap withan available channel of the aggressor network; assigning a secondpriority to the plurality of available channels with experience ofAdditive White Gaussian Noise (AWGN) interference from an availablechannel of the aggressor network; assigning a third priority to theplurality of available channels with experience of flat spectruminterference from an available channel of the aggressor network; andassigning a fourth priority to the plurality of available channels withexperience of bumpy spectrum interference from an available channel ofthe aggressor network, and wherein the first priority is greater thanthe second priority, the second priority is greater than the thirdpriority, and the third priority is greater than the fourth priority.

Example 38 may include the computer device of example 37, wherein theclassification means is for assigning the rank to each of the pluralityof available channels based on an assigned priority of each of theplurality of available channels, and wherein the classification means isfurther for ranking each of the plurality of available channelsaccording an associated data rate.

Example 39 may include the computer device of example 38, wherein theselection means is further for implementing a random selection procedureto select the available channel when the plurality of available channelsincludes at least two available channels with a same rank, whereinimplementation of the random selection procedure is to randomly choosean available channel from among the at least two available channels withthe same rank.

Example 40 may include the computer device of example 34, wherein: theinterference determination means is for determining whether any otherchannels associated with a same wireless communication protocol areoperating on the selected available channel based on another scan of theselected available channel; the selection means is for selecting anotheravailable channel when at least one other channel associated with a samewireless communication protocol is operating on the selected availablechannel; and the communications means is for transmitting the datapacket when no other channels associated with a same wirelesscommunication protocol are operating on the selected available channel.

Example 41 may include the computer device of example 33, wherein theinterference determination means is for determining the interferencesignature is based on an energy detection (ED) operation or a ReceivedSignal Strength Indicator (RSSI).

Example 42 may include the computer device of example 33, wherein theclassification means and/or the selection means is further for: storing,in a dynamic channel allocation (DCA) database (DB), each availablechannel of the plurality of available channels; and storing, in the DCADB, a corresponding wireless communication protocol used by eachavailable channel of the plurality of available channels, whereincorresponding wireless communication protocol used by each availablechannel includes a radio frequency (RF) power level, a data rate, and amodulation schema.

Example 43 may include the computer device of example 33, wherein thecommunications means is for: scanning, at a predetermined interval, thedesired frequency spectrum and for determining the correspondinginterference signature for each available channel based on eachperformed scan.

Example 44 may include the computer device of examples 33-43, whereinthe computer device is implemented in a system on chip (SoC), whereinthe SoC is implemented in a wireless gateway, an Internet of Things(IoT) gateway, a wireless access point, a base station, a radio beacon,a smart phone, a tablet personal computer (PC), a laptop PC, a desktopPC, or a wearable computer device, and wherein the one or more wirelesscommunication protocols comprise at least two of Fifth Generation (5G)or New Radio (NR), Long Term Evolution (LTE); Universal MobileTelecommunications System (UMTS); Global System for MobileCommunications (GSM); Enhanced Data GSM Environment (EDGE); an Instituteof Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 802.11 protocol (WiFi);an IEEE 802.16 protocol (Wi-MAX), one or more IEEE 802.15.4 basedprotocols; Bluetooth or Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) protocols; ANTprotocol; LTE device-to-device (D2D) or Proximity Services (ProSe)protocols; Z-Wave protocol; SigFox protocol; Platanus protocol; and/orUniversal Plug and Play (UPnP).

Although certain embodiments have been illustrated and described hereinfor purposes of description, a wide variety of alternate and/orequivalent embodiments or implementations calculated to achieve the samepurposes may be substituted for the embodiments shown and describedwithout departing from the scope of the present disclosure. Thisapplication is intended to cover any adaptations or variations of theembodiments discussed herein, limited only by the claims.

1-20. (canceled)
 21. One or more non-transitory computer readable media(NTCRM) comprising instructions, wherein execution of the instructionsby one or more processors of a smallcell base station (SBS) is to causethe SBS to: identify one or more connected devices to schedulerespective transmissions; determine interference values for a set ofavailable channels, wherein the interference values are based onmeasurements of the set of available channels; assign ranks to the setof available channels based on the interference values; store theassigned ranks in a channel priority table; assign available channels ofthe set of available channels to corresponding connected devices of theone or more connected devices based on the assigned ranks stored in thechannel priority table; and instruct the corresponding connected devicesto transmit or receive signaling in the assigned available channels. 22.The one or more NTCRM of claim 21, wherein at least one availablechannel of the set of available channels is associated with a wirelesscommunication protocol that is different than a wireless communicationprotocol of another available channel of the set of available channels.23. The one or more NTCRM of claim 21, wherein one or more availablechannels of the set of available channels are 3^(rd) GenerationPartnership Project (3GPP) Long Term Evolution (LTE) channels and one ormore other available channels of the set of available channels areInstitute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 802.11 protocol(WiFi) channels.
 24. The one or more NTCRM of claim 21, whereinexecution of the instructions is to cause the SBS to: determine the setof available channels based on a scan of a desired frequency spectrum.25. The one or more NTCRM of claim 24, wherein execution of theinstructions is to cause the SBS to: determine signal strengthmeasurements or pathloss measurements from the scan of the desiredfrequency spectrum; and determine the set of available channels based onthe determined signal strength measurements or pathloss measurements.26. The one or more NTCRM of claim 21, wherein, to assign the ranks tothe set of available channels, execution of the instructions is to causethe SBS to: assign the ranks to the set of available channels such thatavailable channels with a lower amount of interference are ranked higherthan available channels with a greater amount of interference.
 27. Theone or more NTCRM of claim 26, wherein, to assign the available channelsto the corresponding connected devices, execution of the instructions isto cause the SBS to: assign available channels from among the pluralityof channels to respective ones of the one or more devices based on theassigned ranks.
 28. The one or more NTCRM of claim 27, wherein, toassign the available channels to the corresponding connected devices,execution of the instructions is further to cause the SBS to: assign theavailable channels to the corresponding connected devices further basedon a priority associated with each channel.
 29. The one or more NTCRM ofclaim 21, wherein, to assign the available channels to the correspondingconnected devices, execution of the instructions is to cause the SBS to:assign the available channels to the corresponding connected devicesfurther based on a data rate associated with each channel.
 30. The oneor more NTCRM of claim 21, wherein at least one device of the one ormore connected devices is an Internet of Things (IoT) device or a clientcomputing device.
 31. The one or more NTCRM of claim 21, whereinexecution of the instructions is to cause the SBS to: receive datapackets from the one or more connected devices in the assigned availablechannels; and send the received data packets to a server over a wired orwireless network connection.
 32. A base station (BS) comprising:radiofrequency (RF) circuitry arranged to signal channel assignments torespective connected devices, the channel assignments indicatingassigned available channels in which the respective connected devicesare to transmit or receive signaling; and processor circuitry coupledwith the RF circuitry, the processor circuitry arranged to: identify theconnected devices; determine an amount of interference for a set ofavailable channels based on RF measurements of the set of availablechannels; rank the set of available channels based on the amount ofinterference for the set of available channels; store the ranks in achannel priority table; and determine the channel assignments for therespective connected devices based on the ranks stored in the channelpriority table.
 33. The BS of claim 32, wherein at least one availablechannel of the set of available channels is associated with a wirelesscommunication protocol that is different than a wireless communicationprotocol of another available channel of the set of available channels.34. The BS of claim 32, wherein: the RF circuitry is arranged to performa scan of a desired frequency spectrum; and the processor circuitry isarranged to determine the set of available channels based on the scan.35. The BS of claim 34, wherein the processor circuitry is arranged to:determine signal strength measurements or pathloss measurements based onthe scan; and identify the set of available channels based on thedetermined signal strength measurements or pathloss measurements. 36.The BS of claim 32, wherein, to rank the set of available channels, theprocessor circuitry is arranged to: assign respective ranks to the setof available channels in descending order according to the amount ofinterference experienced by each of the set of available channels. 37.The BS of claim 36, wherein, to determine the channel assignments, theprocessor circuitry is arranged to: assign individual available channelsfrom the set of available channels to the respective connected devicesbased on the assigned ranks.
 38. The BS of claim 32, wherein, todetermine the channel assignments, the processor circuitry is arrangedto: assign individual available channels from the set of availablechannels to the respective connected devices based on a priority of theindividual available channels.
 39. The BS of claim 32, wherein, todetermine the channel assignments, the processor circuitry is arrangedto: assign individual available channels from the set of availablechannels to the respective connected devices based on a data rate of theindividual available channels.
 40. The BS of claim 32, wherein theconnected devices include an Internet of Things (IoT) device or a clientcomputing device.
 41. The BS of claim 32, further comprising: networkinterface circuitry coupled with the processor circuitry, the networkinterface circuitry is arranged to send data packets to a server over anetwork connection, and wherein the RF circuitry is arranged to receivethe data packets from the connected devices in the assigned availablechannels.
 42. A dynamic channel allocation (DCA) method, comprising:identifying, by a smallcell base station (SBS), one or more connecteddevices to schedule respective transmissions; determining, by the SBS,interference signatures for a set of available channels, wherein theinterference signatures indicates an amount of interference experiencedby a corresponding one of the set of available channels based onmeasurements of the set of available channels; assigning, by the SBS,ranks to the corresponding ones of the set of available channels basedon the interference signatures; storing, by the SBS, the assigned ranksin a DCA database; assigning, by the SBS, available channels of the setof available channels to corresponding connected devices of the one ormore connected devices based on the assigned ranks stored in the DCAdatabase; and transmitting, by the SBS, channel assignments torespective connected devices, channel assignments indicating theassigned available channels in which the respective connected devicesare to transmit or receive signaling.
 43. The DCA method of claim 42,further comprising: determining, by the SBS, signal strengthmeasurements or pathloss measurements; and identifying, by the SBS, theavailable channels based on the determined signal strength measurementsor pathloss measurements.
 44. The DCA method of claim 43, furthercomprising: performing, by the SBS, the signal strength measurements orthe pathloss measurements, or receiving, by the SBS, the signal strengthmeasurements or the pathloss measurements from the respective connecteddevices.
 45. The DCA method of claim 43, wherein the BS is arranged to:receiving, by the SBS, data packets from the respective connecteddevices; sending, by the SBS via a core network, the received datapackets to one or more servers or one or more user equipment (UEs);receiving, by the SBS via the core network, other data packets from theone or more servers or the one or more UEs; and transmitting, by theSBS, the other data packets to the respective connected devices.
 46. TheDCA method of claim 43, wherein the respective connected devices includeone or more of Internet of Things (IoT) devices or client UEs, and theSBS is an evolved NodeB (eNB) or a home eNB in a Long Term Evolution(LTE) cellular network, or a next generation NodeB (gNB) in a FifthGeneration (5G) cellular network.